Inmortuus
by The Real Syko
Summary: While death has reigned in the house for the last seven days, what has gone on outside? Surely not another genetically engineered virus? -Sequel to Haemophagia-
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

An abandoned house. Nothing stirs, but for two, sitting in a bedroom, one in the arms of the other, sobbing.

"I still can't believe it was me…" She wailed. The one who held her said nothing, only trying to comfort her. He held her for a long time, they did not keep track of exactly how long. Eventually, she got a hold of herself and dried her eyes.

"Are you okay now?"

"Well… in a manner of speaking…" She sniffed. He looked up and looked around.

"We must have been here a while. It's morning,"

"What? Oh… heh… we should…"

"Yeah…" At that, the pair rose and left the room.

Shadow's remains were still spread on the table. The blood had dried around the wound, and it seemed that the wound was not as bad as it had appeared the previous night. His glazed over expression reconfirmed his deceased status. Sonic left Amy to sit on one of the chairs. She turned it round so she didn't have to look at the body. Sonic left the room and continued out to the garage. Tails' body was still sprawled on the floor, the note lain a few feet away from him. Sonic poked around the desk a little more. The test tubes were gradually becoming stained with the various colours of their contents, as water evaporated from the solutions within, leaving the residue on the sides. He pulled aside the various beakers and containers, looking for some notes. He found a small pile, on the top of which were some cleaner looking pages than the others. They looked relatively recent. He picked up the top ones. A few of them were dated, and appeared to be from only a few days ago to the day he died. He thumbed through them, looking for anything useful. Most of the notes were total gibberish to him, but one caught his eye.

"Reviving those deceased from vampire bites…" He read the title aloud. He carefully put back the other notes and read out the one he had taken. He scanned through the page, trying to discern what he was trying to say. Near the bottom of the page, there was a sub-heading, 'What I just said for dummies'. "Well that was considerate of him… 'This is an experimental therapy and may not work. The bodies must be in near-working order and dead for no more than 48 hours for the treatment to have any chance of success.'" He turned to look at Tails' body. In all fairness, aside from a severed jugular, he wasn't in too bad shape. He put the note down and propped him up on the chair. For optimum chances of success, he bandaged the wound as best he could, and returned to the note. "First, heat the body to body temperature, 37 degrees celsius…" He looked around. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?" He continued to look around. He banged on a few mysterious looking cabinets and doors, looking for something suitable. Then he happened upon one that had a sign on it that read, 'incubator', and a knob on it that had labels of various temperatures, and with 37 degrees written with a sharpie or something similar on it. He took a step back and observed the size of the chamber. It was low down and conveniently body-sized. He thought for a moment. "You'd wonder what he was originally gonna use this for…"

He hauled the body in to the incubator and closed the glass cover, before switching the thing on and turning the knob to the 37 degree mark. He looked at the mark near it that read 'Gas mark 5', and considered what a cooked Tails would look like, but decided against it. While Tails warmed up, he returned to the instructions. "Heat the body… here we go, 'once the temperature is obtained, administer 500ml of the solution prepared, labelled "Revival serum", wait five minutes and perform CPR.' Let's hope this works…" He found the container marked 'revival serum' while he waited for the body to warm up. It was a large container, more of a keg than anything else. He drained 500ml into an empty bottle, and heard a 'ding' from the incubator. "Your toast is done!" He quipped. He chuckled to himself, first at his one joke, but then at himself for being flippant in this, a most macabre of situations. He opened the door, and pulled the body out on a tray. He opened the mouth and poured the solution in, guiding it down his throat by rubbing his hand along his neck. Already some colour began to return, and with the warmth, he began to at least display the appearance of life once again. He looked at his watch. 8:28. Five minutes. He decided to go out and check on Amy while he waited.

"Amy? You okay?" He called ahead of him.

"I'm here," She responded, clearly sounding a little better. He emerged to see her preparing some breakfast, and laying it out on the counter, not able to eat at the table. He looked a little confused, but was glad that she was starting to feel better.

"You're… making breakfast?"

"Thought I might aswell. I was hungry. But it doesn't help that Emo the hedgehog doesn't want to get off the table." She grimaced. He chuckled a little nervously, and she smiled in response. He walked up to her and hugged her, before letting her return to making her food. "Want something?" She added.

"Eh… go on. I'll have a slice of toast while I wait for Tails to do."

"Tails to what?" She gawked.

"Oh, don't worry, I found some notes somewhere and it's some thing to bring people back to life or something." He shrugged. She murmured in acknowledgement, and threw him a slice of toast. He took a bite out of it, but then spat it back out. There were flecks of dried blood on the bread, and it was slightly burnt. He put it down. He looked at his watch again. 8:32. He returned to the garage.

Upon entering, he saw Tails' body, still relatively lifeless, but looking much healthier now. He noticed a slight ticking of the finger, denoting some signs of life. He decided to start CPR immediately. Putting his two hands together, he pushed hard on his chest fifteen times, but still the body lay lifeless. He rolled his eyes, and thought, _the things you do for friends…_ before laying down and locking lips with the corpse. He blew in firmly and quickly, trying to minimise the time spent where he could be caught on camera kissing a dead body. He pulled up and repeated the routine of pushing on the chest, and groaned as he was forced to perform mouth-to-mouth once again. Upon his second return, he growled to see no reaction.

"Wake up, you stupid jerk!" He yelled, slapping him twice in the face, once with the palm and once backhand. The face screwed up, indicating a reaction, and he smiled. _At least something's working…_ He pressed on the chest fifteen more times, and finished with one strong thump in the middle of the chest, hoping for something to happen. And sure enough, something did. The body coughed out a small piece of goo, a mixture of phlegm, blood and the solution he had drunk, and with it emerged the sound of his voice. The body resettled and began breathing again.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Too soon to upload a second chapter

A/N: Too soon to upload a second chapter? Well with two weeks to Halloween, I haven't even started on the premise for this fic, so I should probably add a second chapter pretty soon. Anyway, on with it!

"Amy! I think I've done it!"

"What?" She rushed in to see what had happened.

"Brought Tails back from the dead." He smiled, Tails' body at his feet, breathing erratically, occasionally coughing.

"Is he…" She pointed. He nodded. She gasped. Tails' breathing slowly steadied and he began to stir. Sonic looked back to the instructions on the note.

"'The person should regain consciousness within an hour, after which they are as good as alive. Further medical attention may be needed at this point.' Hmm. Better get him to a bed." He suggested. Amy continued to stare, but then shook herself off and helped him haul Tails to a bed.

"Wh… where… what…" The reanimated body struggled to open his eyes.

"Tails? Buddy? You there?"

"Sonic…?"

"It's okay. You need your rest. Save your strength."

"…" Tails laid his head back down and did as he was told while Sonic left the room. He returned to the sitting room where Amy was watching TV.

"What's up?"

"Umm… Sonic… I don't think this is very good…"

"What happened now…" He asked as he looked towards the TV screen. There was a message saying 'Service down, technical difficulties'. Amy flicked to another station. There was another message to the same effect. The same was true of the next station, and the next, and so on through every station she flicked through. She looked up at him worriedly. They said nothing, but both knew something was wrong.

Sonic looked out the front at the police who were stationed outside. Although the fact of the matter was that the police were nowhere to be seen; just their abandoned cars.

"Uh… guys… something's seriously off here…" He called back, peering through the blinds.

"I'll say… the phone's dead," Amy called back. He cursed under his breath. He took one more look outside, contemplating what to do next, before returning to check on Tails.

When he entered the room, he was sitting up in his bed, setting up his laptop.

"Well somebody's feeling much better,"

"Heh… a bit." He replied, a little hoarse. "I take it you found my experimental treatment?"

"Yep. I'm still wondering why you happened to have a body-sized oven in your lab,"

"It's an incubator, not an oven," He glared, but not all seriously. "I threw it together a few days ago." He looked back at his screen and pressed a few buttons. He frowned, clicking a couple of times. "The internet is out,"

"Figures. Phone's dead too, and so is the TV."

"Oh dear. Not good." Tails pressed some more buttons, and started opening things in a flurry of touch-typing.

"Ya think?"

"Let me just see some of the news reports from the last couple of days…" He clicked some more buttons, before stopping dead.

"What's up?" Sonic asked. He leaned in to see what was on the screen, to no avail. "Hey! What happened?"

"'Second biological release from Eggman labs'" Tails read out the headline, slowly and cautiously. "'Just days after the release of a virus from the downtown laboratory, known to cause a condition known as Haemophagia, a second genetically engineered micro-organism has been detected in the vicinity. The effects of this are unknown, and citizens are advised to stay away from the area at all costs.'"

"Is there anything in the news about it since then?"

"That was from… two days ago, and… that's the most recent report."

"About the thing?"

"No, completely. The website went offline yesterday." They went silent. Sonic got up and left the room. Tails continued to work at his computer.

A few hours later, they reconvened in the bedroom. Tails was still tapping away at his computer, and Amy had washed herself off. Sonic had just rested for a bit.

"So what the hell is going on?" Sonic asked, as an open question.

"From what I can see," Tails answered quickly. "Sometime in the last twenty four hours, all contact with the outside world went down, and the police outside deserted their posts."

"I think we gathered that, Tails…"

"However. It would take something pretty big to knock out all contact. I have a funny feeling the second contamination might have something to do with it."

"And we couldn't figure that out for ourselves?"

"Let me finish, Amy! It couldn't be like the haemophagia virus. That would just thin the population to haemophages, or the converse, to those who survived, like in this house."

"But we have no idea what it could be."

"True. But in order to find out, we need to get out of here."

"What if there's something out there that will try and kill us out there?"

"We'll need to get out at some point, we're running out of food, and the electricity and water will stop sometime soon too." Sonic butted in before Tails could answer.

"I was about to suggest that. As soon as I'm able to walk, we should head out and see what the problem is."

"That could be a long time, buddy…" Sonic sighed.

"Well, that may be where you're wrong…" Tails smiled, but halfway to a grimace. "Fetch me the note with the treatment on it." Sonic dashed to the garage, and returned quickly. "Now if you had read the side effects… let's see… here we go, 'Upon the unlikely event of a successful treatment, side effects may include tinnitus, cataracts or other sensory deficiencies, faulty limbs, or haemophagia for the patient.'"

"Wait… what?"

"All the arms and legs are working, and I can see and hear fine, which means…" He lowered his head, and looked up with pure menace in his eyes, and as he opened his mouth to speak next, two long, pallid fangs extended from his canines, and he grinned viciously. "…I'm gonna need someone to feed on…"


	3. Chapter 3

Sonic slammed the door behind himself

Sonic slammed the door behind himself. Amy knelt down, catching her breath.

"Crap… we lost one vampire but now we have another…" She panted.

"Ech… shouldn't be too big a deal. He should be able to cure himself pretty quickly." As he said this, the door banged loudly. He hurriedly locked it. "We'll get back to him as soon as he wears himself out. I'd say he's pretty much ready to go otherwise. Let's go get ourselves ready."

"O…kay…" She replied, shakily getting to her feet. She took one more look at the door, which shook violently, an enraged snarling audible from the other side.

Hours passed, and the thumping gradually died down. Sonic let Tails out when he was able to have a stable conversation with him, without any evidence of homicidal growling. Amy was already saddling up with supplies and comfortable clothing, and Sonic was also dressed for action.

"You okay buddy?"

"I think I am now… I'll probably need a few more minutes." He replied. He paused and thought. "I need to whip up something to keep me sane. Otherwise I'll just be a liability."

"Wh…" Was all Sonic managed before Tails had disappeared into the garage to work on another chemical concoction.

"Just leave him, he'll be back soon."

Within minutes, he had returned, looking more refreshed, and holding a couple of small bottles in his hand. Sonic was busy getting some of his things together.

"Got somewhere for these?" He asked casually, making Sonic jump.

"Jeez… don't scare me like that!"

"Heh. Sorry. Well?"

"Yeah… sure…"

"Everyone all ready?" Amy asked, peppily sliding into his field of view.

"Ah! Nnh… let's just go already…"

The front garden was empty, as was the street, save the abandoned police cars, and a lost hat, stuck in the gutter, its owner long gone. The cars' doors were left swung open, one even completely off its hinges. There was a small spatter of blood on the bonnet of one car.

"What happened here?"

"Somethin' musta spooked 'em good…"

"This blood… it doesn't look like it's from blunt impact." Tails knelt down to examine the stain. "It looks like it's splashed, as if from a severed vessel."

"So they were attacked. But who would be attacking police?"

"Furthermore," he added. "Who would overpower them like this, enough to have them abandon their post?"

"Whatever it was, it scared everyone else off too," Amy pointed out, noting the total lack of anyone, anywhere to be seen.

"Something big has happened…"

They went across the street to check if any of the neighbours were still present. Sonic walked right up to the door and knocked sternly. There was no answer. He knocked again, a little harder. Still no answer. He resorted to thumping on the door, making a resonant booming sound. The door completely collapsed.

"That's not right…" He uttered, as the interior of the house revealed itself to him. The furniture lay strewn and broken around the halls, and even some of the wallpaper was torn down. "Hello?" he called in. Still, nothing called back. Nothing stirred. He took a step inside. Nothing else yet happened. He took another step. He paused, checking for any response. Deducing that was safe, he loosened up, and had a poke around. He looked up the stairs, off to one side, and saw someone standing at the top, perfectly still. "Hey! You okay?" He called. The person refused to respond. "Fine, be that way. We're just trying to figure out what's going on here…" At this, he turned to explore a different part of the house. No sooner had he done this, than he heard a crashing, as something tumbled down the stairs behind him. He wheeled round to see the person tumble to the bottom of the stairs, cracking their neck in the process. He understood this much; what mystified him was the fact that in doing so, the head separated from the body and bounced down to the ground on its own. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the dismembered noggin hit his leg lightly, and fell over onto a broken end table. His yell was heard outside, at which point Tails and Amy rushed in.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Tails asked urgently.

"The body… it… just fell down the stairs… and the head… just came off," He stammered. Amy looked to one side to see the body slumped at the bottom of the stairs, seeping something brown from some of its broken skin.

"Ew…" She said simply. Tails looked at the head, and rolled it over with a chair leg. The skin was beige and rotting, and one eye was rolled right round inside the skull, while the other was missing entirely.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this person was already dead, and has been for a while."

"But… I saw them standing up straight at the top of the stairs!" Sonic exclaimed, getting to his feet. "Something's definitely not right here…"

"Could be that other release from Eggman's lab."

"What the hell was that nutball up to…" Amy asked, merely rhetorically, before turning to exit the house.

"I think we should check upstairs." Tails added.

The stairs themselves were creaky, but sturdy enough to hold the weight of the two of them still. The upper floor of the house was just as ruined as the lower, and just as quiet. It seemed there was only one other occupant of the house; a still body in much the same state as the other one, laying on one of the beds.

"Uhh… hello?" Sonic asked to it, hoping to solicit a response, but to no avail. Tails took a stick, looking like it came from a cabinet or something, and prodded the body with it. Nothing happened at first, but then it stirred and emitted a pained groan. Slowly, but surely, one leg got itself off the bed, followed by the other. The torso rose with a sickening bend, and the body stood straight for a few seconds, as if it were checking that everything was in place. Upon closer inspection, the pair saw that not everything was; the right arm was missing from the elbow. The body began to move, slowly, step by step, towards the doorway where the pair stood. They slowly moved away, keeping their distance from the reanimated corpse. The body emitted another groan, longer and louder this time, and it gained a bit of speed.

"I think we should get out of here…" Sonic suggested.

"Yeah…" Tails replied. The two of them backed away faster and started to head down the stairs. The body made a lunge when it saw them try to get away, only just missing them. Tails made a bolt for the front door, while Sonic picked up a piece of wood to throw back and hinder the body as it crawled down the stairs. It followed them out the door by a margin of about thirty seconds, by which time they had joined Amy by the cars.

"What the hell is that thing?!" She asked furiously.

"It's a dead body." Sonic answered.

"Well it's not particularly dead if it's crawling towards us!"

"Something's reanimated it." Tails replied.

"So it's a zombie?"

"For want of a better word, yes…"

"Well you know what you do to zombies…" She thought, and reached into the police car. She pulled out a pistol, and calmly wandered over to the body as it struggled along the front lawn. Equally coolly, she stopped at the body and put a bullet square in its forehead. Then she called back, "You shoot them in the head!"


End file.
